Variety (April 1953)

Some ASCAPites See Better Break Vs. BIH1 in Doggie’ Climb to No. 1 T-nr the first time in many4 F ° r hs Broadcast Music, Inc., has m ?Sshed its top song position rel 5? American Society of Com- 10 the A Sors arid Publishers. S 0Se tw Joy’s “Doggie in the Win- Sant » y 'strictly on the strength of SUIIUJ' n.u; S' ^r r pSS 6 'harSispS ^r^ Watz Again With You” ,T resa Brewer's Coral record). This is ^udgin|lyconceded by ‘^Shfas evfdence that*the fSasting interests seemingly bl inr>Hned for one reason or an- o eive the Society, writers ^ publishers "a slightly better e4 l is no secret to BMI that a Songwriters Protective Assn, group of ASCAP tunesmithh under at- torney John Schulman, have a fall dating date in mind for their projected suit against BMI because rf the alleged tie-ins with the ra- dio and TV broadcasters, diskenes (Victor and Columbia), networks (NBC and CBS which respectively own these two major plattenes), plus other reasons. ■ Some 200 ASCAP writers, in- cluding most of the top names, have been allocating 5% of their ASCAP money to a legal kitty; over $300,000 has already, been col- lected. A special uptown office, in the WMGM Bldg., has been set up by attorney Schulman for mutual convenience (the Hays, St. John, Schulman & Abramson law firm is headquartered in downtown New York on lower Broadway). Radio contributes some $9,000,- 000 to ASCAP’s royalty melon an- nually and TV now acpounts for $4,000,000. The Society’s peak dividend was this past year with $16,000,000. ASCAP's basic contention is that with the rare exceptjQns of an Ed- die Fisher disk plugging of “Wiqh You Were Here” into a legit, song t hit; and three or four Hollywood filmusical excerpts,. such as “Be- (Continued on page 78) Dirksen’s D.C. Bill Livens Juke Joust Washington, March 31. ■ Efforts “of the writer-publisher segment of the music business to get performance fees from juke- boxes received another shot-in-ther arm last week when Sen.. Everett M. Dirksen (Rep.,.. Ill,), .threw another bill into the hopper which would completely remove the juke exemption from the Copyright Law. Another bill by Sen. Pat McCarran (Dem., Nev.) to the same effect was introduced into the Sen- ate several weeks ago. McCarran’s bill would maintain the licensing exemption for location-owned- coin. machines. Cloak room speculation as to the reason for Dirksen’s bill is that the Republicans want to take credit for any such legislation rather than permit a Democrat to have ms name on the law, if passed, writers and music publishers, trough their various trade'associ- nT° tv a , n( ^ licen sing groups, prefer in? Dirksen version since it elimi- P° ssibil ity of. hassles ® r / J v 5 ether . a juke is or is not wned by an individual or a syndi- cate operator. Another ‘Mystery’ Voice History is repeating itself in the field of masked singers. The indie ATV label’s release a cpuple of weeks ago, featuring a male vocal- ist billed as the “Masked Singer” is a throwback to the pioneer “The Silver Masked Tenor” of radio and vaude during the 1920s. Latter was later identified as Joe White, But current masked singer’s iden- tity now is known only to the disk- ery execs. Publisher of both sides, “Bravo” and “Only For You,” however, has been revealed as Marks Music. Flanagan s Toddy Disk Sale Accents Bands’ Comeback The comeback of the band busi- ness, after the uncertain post-war years, is currently being drama- tized by the solid click on wax of the Ralph Flanagan band. For the second week running, the Flana- gan band on “Hot Toddy” has been Victor’s bestselling disk and has al- ready topped the 400,000 sales marker. Not since 1942 when Harry James was a hot commod- ity on platters has a straight dance band led a major company’s best- selling lists. Flanagan’s surge on wax is be- ing duplicated, albeit not so strik- ingly, by other dance bands whose disks are also, getting healthy sales reaction, Billy May’s “Bacchana- lia” album for Capitol has been showing strongly along with a cou- ple of Ray Anthony sides. Ralph Marterie has been going steadily for Mercury with “Pretend,” while Buddy .Morrow is still building with “Train, Train, Train” for Vic- tor. Flanagan’s click on “Hot Toddy,” incidentally, represents an all-way payoff for the bandleader. Tune was written by the bandleader in collaboration with his personal manager. Herb Hendler. Number is published by their jointly-owned .firm,. Coachella-Music. MOST EFFECTIVE FLOG TEGHNIOUE The indie label surge in the current wax picture is getting plenty of momentum from the ex- ploitation, promotional and occa- sional financial assists contributed by the major publishing firms. With an increasing number of click shellac breaking for the minor diskeries, the pubs are go* ing all out in working out deals with the mdie bosses to get their tunes etched. , The growth of major pubbery concentration on the indies has not taken any of the play away from the major companies, but ac- cording to pub thinking today, an alliance with an indie disker is equally necessary. They’re hitting the indies with the same fre- quency as they do the a.&r. boys at the major labels and .they’ve discovered that its easier to get a tune set with the former if prom- ises are made to shell out coin and labor in promoting the disk. In some instances pubs have gone so far as to lay out coin for the cost of the recording session. The major pubberies promotion- al efforts generally consist of get- ting the platters around to the top deejays around the country (a reg- ular part of a major label’s opera- tion), and in many cases lining up territorial distributors for the in- die operator. The expenditures or such other exploitation items as brochures, flyers, streamers and overall advertising come as high for plugging a tune cut on a small label as it does for a major disking. ' The majority of pubs are willing to string along with the indies on this basis because a click indie disk can spark a run on sheet copies as easily as a major label rendition. Pubs also base their indie concentration on the fact hat if the disk starts making a lit- tle noise in the market the top diskeries generally are forced to cover. DISK BIZ TAX BITE BIGGEST IN HISTORY 360 oni as ^ Dece mber with $921,- *, he + u - s - Tteasur y- the tax hi? industrys Peak year, FedeS? * b tG - Was only $750,140. TacturprJ aX - 1S 10 ^ of the manll “ actors price to the distributors. 195«> X .P a Y me nt for the whole of «mJ'T Ve . r / was $6,912,370 as $8,189 410. Wlth th * 1947 total of New Federal Tax Edict Limits Band Split to 30 % In Admission Exemptions Chicago, March 31. An interpretation .of the exemp- tion-of admission taxes for charit- able affairs, especially for dances, has led to a great deal of confu- sion among bandleaders, promot- ers and booking agenpies. South Dakota Bureau of Internal Rev- enue is ruling that where a dance or concert is held, which involves a guarantee and a percentage, that to 'qualify for exemption of the Federal excise tax, that not more than a 30% slice above the guar- antee can be had. Most of the bands play a 60-40 split above the flat fee, although some of the ter ritorial bands take a 50-50 break. Dakotk ruling was in'answer to fequest of a Gettysburg, S.D., fire- men’s bash with a name orch as the headliner last month. Leader usually gets a 60-40 break, but the tax bureau ruled that more than 30% would be in violation of the directive issued by Robert Spauld- ing, Commissioner of Internal Rev enue, March 4. According to the midwest agency, more than 30% would defeat the purpose of the exemption, which is to raise funds for charitable work. The interpre- tation claims that the non-exempt person or organization, in this case the orchestra, would be the heavi- est gainer Most of the tax exempt agencies such as firemen and policemen and [Continued on page 76) Pubs Checkmate. Chess Label With 7]4G m Royalties Harry Fox, as trustee of the Music Publishers Protective Assn., obtained a settlement of $7,500 last week for the infringement actions and claims brought by him on behalf of a number of major pub- lishers against Chess Record Corp. of Chicago for unlicensed record- ings. This is substantially in ex- cess of the statutory royalty rate of 2c for each record manufac- tured under the copyright law. However, Fox has refused to con- sider any settlement of the actions likewise instituted by him in Chi- cago oh behalf of a number of pub- lishers against James H. Martin, Inc., because of his desire to ob- tain a reversal of the decision in the Chicago case of Shapiro-Bern- stein vs. Miracle Records. In chat case the court held, that as the “production and sale of a phono- graph record is fully as much a publication as production and sale of sheet music,” the absence of a copyright notice would throw the composition in the public domain. Julian T. Abeles, of Abeles & Bernstein, in association with Ar- vey, Hodes & Mantynband of Chi- (Continued on page 80) Harbach in Hosp Otto A. Harbach, ASCAP prexy, is currently in Doctors Hospital, N. Y. with a slight respiratory in fection. Fred E. Ahlert, former ASCAP prez and now a member of the board, has been bedded in the same hospital for the past week [with the flu. ASCAP Performance Payoff Puts Cahl Exits Disney Music Phil Cahl exited as head of the New York office of Walt Disney last week after being in that spot for almost a year. Cahl came in after Herb Reis left to head up Frank Loesser’s music publishing operation, Frank Music. Fred Raphael, head of Disney’s firm on the Coast, is coming to N.Y. this week to name a replace- ment. Vanghn Monroe Quits Band Biz To Do a Single Vaughn Monroe, who has had the biggest grossing organization in the band biz for the past three years, is giving up his orch to do a single. Monroe has already been set for a two-week stand into the Sahara in Las Vegas, starting June 30 and talks are being held now with Bill Miller, owner of the Riviera, Fort Lee, N. J., for a booking there for Monroe in August. Miller also books the Sahara. For the past few years, Monraa has grossed consistently over $1,- 000,000 via his one-niter tours, the “Camel Caravan” air show and his disks. He gave notice to his band last weekend and will fold his band operation early in May. Wil- lard Alexander, who handled the band, will continue to book Mon- roe as a single. Monroe will remain as an RCA Victor artist and may continue to be billed as bandleader, but with a studio orch. Similarly, Monroe will stay with the “Camel Caravan” series, using special'musicrews for this assignment. Monroe heads for Hollywood May 12 to star in the Republic Pictures production, “The Professor and The Co-Ed.” Monroe organized his band in 1940 and has operated since that time with virtually the same line- up of sidemen. The orch has bfeen consistently active on the one-niter circuits, playing over 200 such dates annually. Chi’s Campbell-Hinge Drops Sheet Jobbing In Copy Sales Slump Further pointing up the general decline of music copy sales around the country is decision of one of Chicago’s top sheet firms, Camp- bell-Hinge, to drop its jobbing of sheet*music. New .York pubs were notified of. the action, which goes into effect April 20, early this week. Rising costs and steady sales drop were given as the reasons for closing out its jobbing, division. It’s understood that such other Chi sheet firms as Carl Fischer and Lyon & Healey will absorb C-H’s jobbing activities. Sheet sales slump has been a growing retailer and publisher headache for the past few years. Disk hits no longer indicate the copy sales potential of the tune and, in many ‘ instances, platters which have topped the 250,000 mark have made no dent in the sheet market. The majority of tunes that pace the disk field to- day, sheet retailers claim, are strictly performance items and 'are of little value to the sheet buying public. . Hendl Wins Diston Award Dallas, March 31. Walter Hendl, conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, is the 1953 winner of the annual Diston Award of Columbia University. The award is $1,000. Although the new payoff plan of the American Society of Com- posers, Authors & Publishers has gained virtually’ solid approval within the pop cleffer ranks, stand- ard or longhair ASCAP composers have been seriously hit economi- cally by the operation of the new system. As a result, Broadcast Mu- sic, Inc., has been able to make big inroads recently in corraling top name" contemporary longhairs to exclusive writer deals. ASCAP execs are frankly in a dilemma over how to regain the Society’s attraction for the long- hairs. The 100% accent on per- formances under the current dis- tribution system has put all but a few top longhairs in a financial predicament and ASCAP can do nothing about it since it must pay off by a strict machine-counted rating of the plugs. An effort was made in the payoff plan to rectify the imbalance be- tween the pop and standard per- formances by weighting the plug values in favor of longer composi- tions. This, however, has been only a slight palliative since the long- hair works still don’t garner enough air plugs, even*with the weighting system, to mean much in the overall performance picture. Under the old system the longhair composers were favored by the “availability” bracket under which a work’s value could be rated by subjective criteria, such as “cul- tural importance.” BMI, however, is not inhibited in its payoff to the symphonic com- posers. A private corporation, BMI can make its own deals and in re- cent months has inked such long- hair luminaries as’ William H. Schuman, Walter Piston and Ulys- ses Kay. These deals are part * of BMI’s program to encourage Seri- ous music in the U. S. and have contributed to BMI’s “prestige” buildup in recent years. Joni Janies, Rodde M-G-M Records’ songstress Jonl James settled the contract dispute with her personal manager, Leroy .Rodde, with the latter relinquish-— mg all managerial rights. In re- irn the thrush will pay Rodde (100,000 over a period of years. New deal’ gives Miss James all rights to her royalties from her M-G-M disks, including her first hit, “Why Don’t You Believe Me?” Originally, Rodde was to receive all royalties from this side since he made the master independently and sold the master to M-G-M. Rodde,- a Chicago appliance dealer, reached the settlement amicably with Miss James. Harry Meyerson, M-G-M Records artists & repertoire topper, will wing to Chicago Sunday (5) to wax a flock of sides with the warbler. Diskery wants to have a stockpile of Miss James’ platters in the can because her lengthy personal ap- pearance booking sked will make it difficult to hold recording dates. MINEVITCH’S CAPITOL .DEAL; BACK TO PARIS Having set up his harmonica manufacturing plant in Hollywood, which had him tied on the Coast for several months, along with other interests, Borrah Minevitch is slated to sail for Paris April 10 on the Liberte. He makes his home in France. While on the Coast Minevitch also set a diskery deal with Capitol to release 12 masters he and his Harmonica Rascals had independ- ently recorded at Universal labs some time ago. The first eight sides will be issued as an album in all speeds, with the remaining four to follow, as singles. .. -